Optical techniques, broadly defined to include IR and UV "light",
also aid studies of near-Earth "geospace". Images and spectroscopic
studies help us understand the auroras, while extreme UV images from satellites
reveal the structure of Earth's plasmasphere.

Techniques and instruments employing radio waves help us probe the electrically
charged layers of Earth's atmosphere collectively referred to as the ionosphere.
Radars and antenna arrays called riometers allow us to determine
which radio waves pass through, get absorbed by, and bounce off specific layers
of the ionosphere.

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